Holly Springs-- Part 5: The Expedition Begins

Colonel John S. Griffith wanted to lead th  raid on Holly Springs, but the command went to Earl Van Dorn.

Colonel Theophilus Lyle Dickey commanded the 4th Illinois Cavalry and was to attack the Mobil & Corinth Railroad.

The raid was to be planned and begun in total secrecy.  Van Dorn had 3,500 men.  It began on December 16, 1862,   He took along no artillery or wagons and had orders not to engage in the opening days.  His column covered 45 miles the first day.  On December 17, they headed north.

Colonel Dickey caught sight of the Confederates on December 18. On December 19, Van Dorn was at Cotton Plantation then he moved northwest to Holly Springs.

In the meantime, Mrs. Grant and a son were in Holly Springs at the Walter Place House and had to leave quickly.

Old Secesh

Gen. Grant Speaks at Hainesville-- Part 2: USMA, Military Career, Marriage, Resignation and 'Hardscrabble'

Presentation of Wayne Issleb, playing the role of General U.S. Grant.

But, he loved horses.  He trained them  By the time he was 12 he had quite a horse business going.

Grant went to West Point, even though he really didn't want to and graduated in 1843.  He was sent to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis.  While at the military academy he had become a friend with Frederick Dent from Missouri and James Longstreet from Georgia.

He started going to his friend's home and met his sister Julia and became enamored of her and they eventually married.  However, his father did not attend because the Dents owned slaves and he was a strict abolitionist.

However, soon afterward, he was transferred to Oregon Territory while his family remained elsewhere.  This is when he started drinking.  

It was soon after that that he resigned from the Army and returned home. That trip from the West to home, via New York, took seven months as he went around the tip of South America.  By the time he got to New York City, he had used up all his money.  He had to borrow $70 to get back home to St. Louis.

From 1855 to 1857, he built a small farm at a place he called "Hardscrabble" and had a series of failed jobs.  In 1860, he asked his father for help was turned down because he was living in a slave state.

His Father Hated Anything Slave.  --Old Secesh